Bithumb Loses $32M in Bitcoin Heist

Paul Rubens - June 20, 2018 - 08:53 AM

The theft is the second South Korean cryptocurrency break-in in just over a week.

(CCM) — A South Korean Bitcoin exchange has fallen victim to a cyber-robbery for the second time in less than a year. This time hackers made off with $31.6 million of cyber-cash from the Bithumb exchange, according to a BBC report. The prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple — three popular cryptocurrencies — all fell when the news was announced.

Bithumb was quick to reassure its customers that any who are affected by the theft will be paid back in full, but the exchange has ceased to operate for the moment. "All deposit and withdrawal services will be stopped to make sure [of our] security... We are providing compensation... Bithumb urgently asks our valuable customers not to deposit any funds into Bithumb wallet addresses for the time being," the company said in a Tweet.

Last week the company carried out a security upgrade to its database and transferred some of its cryptocurrency assets to storage systems which are not connected to the internet. It is not clear if this is linked to the reported theft, the report says.

The theft is the second major incident of its kind in South Korea in recent days. Just over one week ago hackers made off with cryptocurrency of a similar value from rival exchange Coinrail.